Mississippi River Anthropocenes: Running the River School

• In Event: Quotidian Anthropocenes

Abstract

In 2018-19,  Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (both in Germany) partnered with researchers, artists, educators, and activists in five places along the Mississippi to explore the river as an exemplary site of “the Anthropocene.” The River School -- organized by STS researchers at Drexel University and the University of California Irvine -- was designed to draw these groups into dialogue and comparative analysis. The River School included a Field Campus in St. Louis, and curation of digital collections about work underway at each field site (Minneapolis, Chicago. St. Louis, New Orleans, TBA). It also developed and shared a portfolio of theoretically and politically inflected tactics for local engagements with the Anthropocene -- conceptualized as “quotidian Anthropocenes.” In this presentation, we’ll share River School experiences, tactics and plans for the future. We’ll also describe how the digital platform for the Disaster STS Network served as socio-technical infrastructure for the River School. The presentation will include an open call for collaboration, encouraging audience members to take the project tactics home, host Field Campuses, and join the on-going archiving, analytic, networking and political effort.

Authors

• Tim Schuetz, UC Irvine

• Jason Ludwig, Drexel University